Backlash 2016 results: AJ Styles wins WWE championship from Dean Ambrose

The main event of the very first SmackDown Live exclusive WWE pay-per-view (PPV) featured AJ Styles challenging Dean Ambrose for the WWE world championship at Backlash tonight (Sept. 11, 2016) in Richmond, Virginia.

And winning it.

They were in the ring at 10:10 p.m. ET and had as much as 50 minutes to put on a classic. Considering it was Styles in a headlining match, it was expected.

It was great.

Styles started working the leg over later in the match, including going for the Calf Crusher multiple times. Ambrose’s counter was to simply pick his head up and smash him onto the canvas. It turned into a real back-and-forth war of attrition from there.

Ambrose got wild with it near the end, doing crazy dives and throwing Styles all over the place. But the finish was AJ cheating his way to a win, as he noticed the referee take a bump and hit Dean with a low blow that set up the Styles Clash.

That’s what got him the pin and the title.

For complete Backlash results and coverage of every match on the card click here.